CHAPTER XXXII - OUR OWN TIME
(WHAT CHARACTERIZES 'OUR OWN TIME'?)
I. HILDE WONDERS WHAT HER FATHER WAS PLANNING FOR ALBERTO AND SOPHIE TO DO IN THE FICTIONAL NARRATIVE...
A. IS HILDE HERSELF DREAMING THIS EVENT-- [FREUD? THE ROMANTICS?]
B. IS THE POINT OF CONTACT THE LOST CROSS AT THE DOCK?
C. GOING INTO THE UNCONSCIOUS OF THE MAJOR, AND RECALL THE IMPORTANCE OF DREAMING IN THE LAST CHAPTER.?
II. SOPHIE’S NARRATIVE CONTINUES:
A. THE TOUR OF SWEDEN WITH MORTEN, A GOOSE--[A ROMANTICALLY IRONIC GOOSE]-from LEBANON.
B. SOPHIE TOOK THE TOUR OF PHILOSOPHY, SO WHAT MUST SHE NOW DO?
1. PLAN A PHILOSOPHICAL GARDEN PARTY?
2. WHAT TRICK WILL BE PLAYED ON WHOM AND HOW? (P. 446)
C. EXISTENTIALISM: (Kierkegaard, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Albee)
1--‘EXISTENCE TAKES PRIORITY OVER ESSENCE'
2--DO WE DEFINE OUR OWN ESSENCE?
3-- MAN MUST CREATE HIMSELF" MUST HILDE AND SOPHIE DO THE SAME, AND HOW? -- READ A SHORT POEM CALLED: “WHAT IS OUR LIFE”
4--ALBERTO (P. 452) REMINDS SOPHIE THAT "TO EXIST IS TO CREATE YOUR OWN LIFE," BUT THE DIALECTIC NEVER CEASES. WHOM DO SOPHIE AND HILDE SEE ON TV IN THE CAFE? WHOM THEY SEE LOOKS LIKE SOMEONE SOPHIE KNOWS. (P. 459).
5--REMEMBER THAT HILDE IS READING THIS.
D. THE ALIENATION OF SARTRE:
1--THERE ARE NO ETERNAL VALUES.
2.--WE MUST MAKE OUR OWN CHOICES AND ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEM. IRONICALLY, HAS THE MAJOR BEEN ENCOURAGING HILDE TO DO THE SAME?
3--THE THEATER OF THE ABSURD:
a. ‘THE SANDBOX, (AND KEEP THE GARDEN PARTY IN MIND)'
b. 'SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR.'
c. Is this movie existential, "absurd," an exercise in the dialectic?
III. WE ARE ALL PRODUCTS OF PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTION, AND EACH AGE MUST REDEFINE WHAT THAT REFLECTION MEANS: WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF SUBJECTIVISM? WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE 'SYSTEMS' AND WHY?
A. SCIENCE?
B. THE OCCULT?
C. ECOPHILOSOPHERS?
D. BILL GATES AND TECHNOLOGY?
E. UFO’S?--JUNG CALLED ALIENS 'TECHNOLOGICAL ANGELS." DID ALIENS LAND AT ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO IN JULY, 1947?
F. THE 'COMMUNICATIONS' REVOLUTION HAS HAD WHAT IMPACT ON SUBJECTIVISM? HOW WOULD PLATO RESPOND TO GOOGLE?
IV. HAS THE MAJOR THOUGHT BEYOND THE GARDEN PARTY?
V. NOTICE THAT FRAGMENTS FROM THE VARIOUS PHILOSOPHERS SOPHIE HAS STUDIED SYNTHESIZE IN THIS CHAPTER.
A. WHY, AND REMEMBER TO THINK DIALECTICALLY.
B. WHAT MUST WE DO? WHAT ALARMS ALBERTO IN THIS CHAPTER?
C. WHY WON'T ALBERTO ANSWER THE QUESTION ON THE LAST PAGE OF THE CHAPTER?
SUPPLEMENTARY COMMENTS
1--HILDE WONDERS HOW MUCH HER FATHER KNOWS ABOUT SOPHIE /ALBERTO HERSELF
2--HER FLASHBACKS HELP (SARTRE / FREUD) TO EXPLORE HER LATENT DREAMS:
A-RECALL SOPHIE’ DREAM …188 - THE GOLD CROSS
B-HILDE AND THE MIRROR…298- A PROPHETIC LITERARY DREAM WHICH AS IN FRANKENSTEIN, THE MONK AND DRACULA ALWAYS FORESHADOW.
C-WHAT IS THE CLUE ON PAGE 302 THAT INVOLVES THE MIRROR? HILDE WONDERS HOW IT WOULD BE IF HER FATHER "DECIDED EVERYTHING."
D-IF SO, IS HILDE'S REBELLION POSSIBLE?.
3--THE GOAL: HILDE WILL GO INTO THE MAJOR’S UNCONSCIOUS (FOR STAR TREK FANS, WHAT DID Q TELL PICARD IN THE FINAL EPISODE, ALL GOOD THINGS?) RECALL BLOOM'S OPINION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HAMLET AND SHAKESPEARE: HAMLET: POEM UNLIMITED.
4--THE POINT OF VIEW SHIFTS AGAIN TO SOPHIE…EXAMINE CAREFULLY ANOTHER EXISTENTIALIST, SARTRE: SEE EXISTENTIALISM IS A HUMANISM:
A--THE GOOSE AND THE PARTY… (444 ff.)
B--EXISTENTIALISM AND SARTRE (ABSURD) EXISTENCE AND ESSENCE.
C--DOES ESSENCE PRECEDE EXISTENCE?
D--DOES EXISTENCE PRECEDE ESSENCE?
E--DOES THE CREATOR: GOD, YOUR PARENTS, OR EVEN TEACHERS WANT YOU TO DEFINE YOUR OWN ESSENCE? WHY IS SUCH SO DANGEROUS?
F--WHAT ARCHETYPE IS OFTEN REPRESSED, AND WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES? SIGNIFICANTLY, HILDE AND SOPHIE ARE OFTEN AFRAID. AS A PARALLEL, WHAT DID YODA TELL LUKE TO TEMPER HIS 'DESIRE' TO BECOME A JEDI KNIGHT IMMEDIATELY?
5-- WHAT MUST WE DO WHEN CONVENTIONAL EXPLANATIONS NO LONGER SUFFICE? WHAT HAVE SOPHIE AND HILDE BEEN TAUGHT FROM THE BEGINNING? REMEMBER THE RABBIT AND THAT FROM THE BEGINNING, SOPHIE FOUND SCHOOL BORING ONCE SHE MET ALBERTO.
SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS
During the 1960's, "The Theater of the Absurd" became quite popular by dramatizing the ANGST and apparent inability of the "systems" to provide answers to economic, political and military "excesses." The self was forced to define meaning personally, to take the "leap of faith"...
Edward Albee's THE SANDBOX is a short absurdist play that captures the essence of this chapter.
As an adjunct, read EXISTENTIALISM IS A HUMANISM:
